GRIPS: GRB Investigation via Polarimetry and Spectroscopy
GRIPS is a satellite mission proposed by an international collaboration to study gamma-ray bursts (GRB) - one of the most intriguing phenomena in The Universe. Because of the unprecedental sensitivity and precision the mission will study in depth the origin and physics of the GRB, but also use them as tool to understand the earliest epochs when the first stars and galaxies were formed.

Basic informations about GRBs
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are very short and intense pulses of soft gamma-rays. Typical burst lasts from a fraction of a second to several hundred seconds. GRBs arrive from random directions in the sky. In gamma-rays, GRBs are the most luminous sources on the sky. Total energy, emitted during the burst (assuming spherical explosion) is of the order of ~10^49 - 10^51 erg. To emit such an amount of energy the Sun should shine from one billion to 100 billions years!